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- Aug 10, 2011
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As some of you know, i work at gun store here in the South Eastern US. Its an interesting job that allows me to meet some pretty interesting cats, play with some pretty interesting toys, and of course gets me sweet sweet deals on guns id otherwise never have the cash to get. so lets just talk about the job eh?
1- Its Not All Fun and Games: A lot actually goes into working around firearms, not the least of which is regulatory stuff like constant gun checks and accountability. The ATF round these parts stipulate that we maintain up to date numbers on the firearms we have on site twice a day, at opening and closing, and matching serial numbers to our data base can be a time consuming endeavor when you're scanning and hand counting up to 2000 individual firearms. Shift begins at 7 am? expect to be in the storage at 6. get off at 10? wont leave for home til past 11. thats every single day. and Woe to Those that miscount because thats an automatic REDO. The ATF dont play when it comes to missing guns.
2- Customers Are Your Best Friends and Worse Enemies: Not gonna lie, most of the aggravation from the job is customer related. You got your typical assortment of guns store guys like
-The underage kid who wants to touch everything and ask basic questions about the 'cool guns' (AR's...)
-The old timer whose retired and just comes to shoot the shit (these cats tend to be cool and always have good stories
-The old timer whose retired and just comes to talk politics (these guys are pretty obnoxious)
-The guy who comes in all the time but never actually buys anything
-The guy that comes in all the time and ALWAYS BUYS SOMETHING
-First time gun buyers looking for help/advice
-Mall ninjas
You'd be surprised how often its assumed that I, or any other employee, have less knowledge about both the products we sell, and the laws that govern them than any particular customer. I get it all the time, from guys who think 9mm parabellum and 9mm luger arent interchangeable to the dudes who think my stoeger coach guns are illegal cause they are 'sawed off's. Trust me. The amount of knowledge that you are tested on in order to work a gun counter and actually SELL firearms would be distressing. We have to know both Federal and State and Local laws like the back of our hands in addition to various odd situations that can and WILL pop up.
3- Your Good Clothes Will Get Destroyed: Every firearm we get in the start comes packed in a box, wrapped in thick plastic with preservative grease on it. This grease stains like a motherfucker and smells...less than pleasant. Upon receipt of a new gun, we will unpack it, verify the serial number, input it into our computer logs, update our ATF inventory, dissassemble said firearm, clean it of packing grease, oil and lube it, reassemble and either place it back in the box for storage or mount it on the wall for display. We do this for EVERY gun and if we happen to get 20+ guns in that day? well, get your ass to work a little earlier lol. We rotate our cleaning so that all the guns are dusted, cleaned, and re oiled once a month.
4- Non-standard Boxes are the Devils Play Things: Im looking at you benelli and Beretta. Virtually every manufacturer has settled on a default box design that maximizes internal space and decreases external dimensions while displaying firearm data in pretty much the same configuration on the box. Except for the Italians. Their S/N's and Barcodes and shipping codes are all mixed the fuck up with the gun info boxes being a mismatch of italian code and english short hand. When i Get a Browning that shit says something like A5. 28in BBL, Walnut. Or a Remington will say VERSAMAX 26in BBL MO BRK UP. Boom, its the model, barrel length and furniture. Not Benelli. We'll get some non-sense like SBEAN 25/28SYN/CM/5 Which looks like shit until you figure out by memory wtf it is, in this case a super black eagle 2, 28 in barrel Camo, Mossy oak, type 5 (shadow grass).
5- A Surprising Amount of Shit is Made Overseas Now: Fun fact, when we are selling a gun, my system will ask for the serial number, and manufacturer to cross reference the gun im trying to sell to remove it from my system. Key word, MANUFACTURER. So that Winchester SXP? hahaha, NOT a winchester manufactured gun. Its made in Turkey by Instanbul Silyah. That Stevens 320? Sun City China. That other Stevens, the 555 O/U? lol, Turkey again. Mossberg 22's? Brazil, some models of Savages, mostly their rimfires? Canada. It's pretty frustrating for the new guys to try to remember when each model firearm is made when a classic logo like COLT or WINCHESTER or REMINGTON is stamped all over it yet the system doesnt recognize it under those brand headings. The more you know.
6-Guns Hold Their Value Well...IF: It's true, guns are a good investment if you take care of them because good guns will almost never depreciate very much, and true classics like original Model 70's etc, INCREASE in value. That being said, dont try to trade us a firearm that has 'custom work' on it, and expect a good return. You bring me a used Gen 3 GLOCK of any caliber? ill give you 300 up front no questions assuming it doesnt look like you fed it into a wood chipper. Hell, some of the harder to get ones will net you more, like 450 for a used Gen 3 Glock 20. But if you bring some POS that has slide cuts and cutom drop in triggers and special barrels? 150-200....MAYBE. Here's the thing, when you chop shop a Glock and add a bunch of shit, you basically void its warranty, secondly, what YOU thought made it cool/better isnt necessarily what someone else thinks, so you decrease the market size that i can resale that pistol and thus its value to me. Same goes for bubba'd CR weapons. Nice nazi stamped K98 with excellent bore you got there. too bad you hacked the stock, and drilled the receiver so you could toss a POS scope on there. 100 bucks best offer. Mosin Nagant? i got 50 in the back, ill give you 30 bucks. Oh its a sniper model with 25 hashmarks cut into the stock? got official paper work? no? 15 bucks. Your grandpappies Browning Auto 5 with rust on the barrel and dented crown? 100 bucks. Pro-tip. If YOU wouldnt buy it, knowing nothing of its history, neither will anyone else. thats why you should keep your guns in good condition, you may need to sell them some day.
Im gonna cut it off for right now, ironically i have to go to work, if anybody wants me to continue this or just has any questions or comments let me know!
1- Its Not All Fun and Games: A lot actually goes into working around firearms, not the least of which is regulatory stuff like constant gun checks and accountability. The ATF round these parts stipulate that we maintain up to date numbers on the firearms we have on site twice a day, at opening and closing, and matching serial numbers to our data base can be a time consuming endeavor when you're scanning and hand counting up to 2000 individual firearms. Shift begins at 7 am? expect to be in the storage at 6. get off at 10? wont leave for home til past 11. thats every single day. and Woe to Those that miscount because thats an automatic REDO. The ATF dont play when it comes to missing guns.
2- Customers Are Your Best Friends and Worse Enemies: Not gonna lie, most of the aggravation from the job is customer related. You got your typical assortment of guns store guys like
-The underage kid who wants to touch everything and ask basic questions about the 'cool guns' (AR's...)
-The old timer whose retired and just comes to shoot the shit (these cats tend to be cool and always have good stories
-The old timer whose retired and just comes to talk politics (these guys are pretty obnoxious)
-The guy who comes in all the time but never actually buys anything
-The guy that comes in all the time and ALWAYS BUYS SOMETHING
-First time gun buyers looking for help/advice
-Mall ninjas
You'd be surprised how often its assumed that I, or any other employee, have less knowledge about both the products we sell, and the laws that govern them than any particular customer. I get it all the time, from guys who think 9mm parabellum and 9mm luger arent interchangeable to the dudes who think my stoeger coach guns are illegal cause they are 'sawed off's. Trust me. The amount of knowledge that you are tested on in order to work a gun counter and actually SELL firearms would be distressing. We have to know both Federal and State and Local laws like the back of our hands in addition to various odd situations that can and WILL pop up.
3- Your Good Clothes Will Get Destroyed: Every firearm we get in the start comes packed in a box, wrapped in thick plastic with preservative grease on it. This grease stains like a motherfucker and smells...less than pleasant. Upon receipt of a new gun, we will unpack it, verify the serial number, input it into our computer logs, update our ATF inventory, dissassemble said firearm, clean it of packing grease, oil and lube it, reassemble and either place it back in the box for storage or mount it on the wall for display. We do this for EVERY gun and if we happen to get 20+ guns in that day? well, get your ass to work a little earlier lol. We rotate our cleaning so that all the guns are dusted, cleaned, and re oiled once a month.
4- Non-standard Boxes are the Devils Play Things: Im looking at you benelli and Beretta. Virtually every manufacturer has settled on a default box design that maximizes internal space and decreases external dimensions while displaying firearm data in pretty much the same configuration on the box. Except for the Italians. Their S/N's and Barcodes and shipping codes are all mixed the fuck up with the gun info boxes being a mismatch of italian code and english short hand. When i Get a Browning that shit says something like A5. 28in BBL, Walnut. Or a Remington will say VERSAMAX 26in BBL MO BRK UP. Boom, its the model, barrel length and furniture. Not Benelli. We'll get some non-sense like SBEAN 25/28SYN/CM/5 Which looks like shit until you figure out by memory wtf it is, in this case a super black eagle 2, 28 in barrel Camo, Mossy oak, type 5 (shadow grass).
5- A Surprising Amount of Shit is Made Overseas Now: Fun fact, when we are selling a gun, my system will ask for the serial number, and manufacturer to cross reference the gun im trying to sell to remove it from my system. Key word, MANUFACTURER. So that Winchester SXP? hahaha, NOT a winchester manufactured gun. Its made in Turkey by Instanbul Silyah. That Stevens 320? Sun City China. That other Stevens, the 555 O/U? lol, Turkey again. Mossberg 22's? Brazil, some models of Savages, mostly their rimfires? Canada. It's pretty frustrating for the new guys to try to remember when each model firearm is made when a classic logo like COLT or WINCHESTER or REMINGTON is stamped all over it yet the system doesnt recognize it under those brand headings. The more you know.
6-Guns Hold Their Value Well...IF: It's true, guns are a good investment if you take care of them because good guns will almost never depreciate very much, and true classics like original Model 70's etc, INCREASE in value. That being said, dont try to trade us a firearm that has 'custom work' on it, and expect a good return. You bring me a used Gen 3 GLOCK of any caliber? ill give you 300 up front no questions assuming it doesnt look like you fed it into a wood chipper. Hell, some of the harder to get ones will net you more, like 450 for a used Gen 3 Glock 20. But if you bring some POS that has slide cuts and cutom drop in triggers and special barrels? 150-200....MAYBE. Here's the thing, when you chop shop a Glock and add a bunch of shit, you basically void its warranty, secondly, what YOU thought made it cool/better isnt necessarily what someone else thinks, so you decrease the market size that i can resale that pistol and thus its value to me. Same goes for bubba'd CR weapons. Nice nazi stamped K98 with excellent bore you got there. too bad you hacked the stock, and drilled the receiver so you could toss a POS scope on there. 100 bucks best offer. Mosin Nagant? i got 50 in the back, ill give you 30 bucks. Oh its a sniper model with 25 hashmarks cut into the stock? got official paper work? no? 15 bucks. Your grandpappies Browning Auto 5 with rust on the barrel and dented crown? 100 bucks. Pro-tip. If YOU wouldnt buy it, knowing nothing of its history, neither will anyone else. thats why you should keep your guns in good condition, you may need to sell them some day.
Im gonna cut it off for right now, ironically i have to go to work, if anybody wants me to continue this or just has any questions or comments let me know!